The Portland daily press., 1887-08-18

homestead still laughing with the heart of a
girl, and whose dear face is as rosy to me as
it ever wasl. trimmed of the supertiuous
branches aud placed the boughs in layers
upon the floor, until the completed bundle
she took between her knees, and with both
hands drew the string, well twisted, from
the tough flax, which grew and blossomed
on the farm, and wound it around many
times for the insertion of the implanted han
die, which was driven as a wedge into the
middle of the boughs, with resounding
strokes upon the hard floor. This once ia
mlliar broom, made in this primitive fashion
ne longer exists in old York. No, instead of
this fragrant, clean sweeper, whose cost
never changed we have the prosy shaker
Germ broom, musty from the factory, bought
only with money, thirteen cents wholesale,
thirty-three cents retail. This last sugges
ton accounts for the desertion of the farms.
But other divinities than the penates must
not be overlooked. The Roman Ceres never
smiled mid the grain fields of Italy more GER
tainly than in York in former days. But
when the harvest came the farmer and his
sons had to face that field with sickle in
hand, and STOPPING to the grain, gathered
with skillful sweep of the Bonded blade
the full heads into the left hand, and with a
dexterous stroke severed them from the tall
stubble, and by repeated strokes passed from
side to side of the wide swath, all day long,
until the field was harvested. Lucky was
the beginner whose little finger ON the left
hand was not sawed to the bone by the
sharp teeth of the unfeeling sickle
l can still show the scar on mine, the smart
and ache / have ceased to feel, and recall it
now only to revive with grateful memory the
tender solictude and pity of my father on
the occasion Now the inventive genius of
the land drives along with his chariot and
four in the morning, and says unto field OF
wheat, ''be thou plucked, thraShed and win
owed ere the set of the SUM-" The same in
ventive genius by means OF machinery, says
unto brass ''be thou watch" and unto steel
''be thou giant and lead forth thy train,
commerce laden from the factories of the
East unto the furthest farm where the sun
'trembles at the gates of the west" 1t is
the genius which has changed old York and
and the whole country.
While legislators and politicians are i'm
portant factors in the State, yet they are not
comparable in the benefcence of the achieve
ments to the inventors; and old York has
had her share of inventors. The brain of
| one inventor now supplies intelligence as
well as motion to the loom through the turn
ing Of wheel: And although we have left
old York she does not miss us, there are just
as good left, and will be until the end of
| time. For the mothers are there, and the
| hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that
| rocks the world
Great statesmen govern nations,
Kings mould a peoples fate,
But the unseen hands of velvet,
These giants regulate.
The iron arm of fortune.
With woman'S charm is purled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle,
Is the hand that rules the world.
The Secretary, ID. B. Kicker, Esq, read
the following letter:
BosToN, Aug. 10, 1883.
! d. 3. Kicker, Secretary Of the York Society
My Dear Sir-I greatly regret that cannot be
J with you next Wednesday, There are no friends
like old friends, and would rather meet my old
| neighbors from York county than anybody else
] in the world. But next Monday 1 go away with
| my family to the mountains and can't leave
| them.
| With thanks for your courteous remembrance
| and with love to old friends.
| Yours truly,
| STILLMAN b. ALLEN.
A vote of thanks was extended by the So
ciety to Manager F. Ii. Chester, of the Wal
do. for the excellent accommodations and
the dinner furnished. There was about
the same number present at the reun-
ion this year that there was last, and the en-
| ioyment of all was greater, if possible, than
ever before. Every one was much pleased,
too, with the music furnished by Moore's
| Rand